Pssst! Kids learn something from YouTube videos

Kelly Haramis, TRIBUNE REPORTERCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Ah, the wonders of YouTube. There's the latest presidential candidate flub. Music videos that never seem to run on television. And don't forget the porn. But here's a tip, compliments of savvy parents: Your computer can serve up more family-friendly content than a thousand DVRs working overtime.

YouTube may have not replaced the boob tube in your home. Yet. But more and more parents are turning their children's eyes toward a 21st Century medium, minus the toy commercials and often packaged in short, kid-friendly segments.

"There's been a push for decades for parents to watch TV with their children," but parents haven't always done that, said Patricia Leavy, sociology professor at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass. "But with this new technology, parents are able to watch with their children," she said, adding that YouTube offers "a way of sharing common interests."

And Leavy, who watches Tori Amos concerts with her 7-year-old daughter, thinks this is a positive trend.

"Whenever you have parents and children spending time together, it's good. When parents and kids consume media together, any kind of media, there's more of a conversation of what they're seeing."

She's right -- and forget the image of kids watching only cartoons (OK, there's a good amount of that). Instead, the media-savvy tots of Generation X and Y parents turn their pupils toward an astounding array of cultural catch-alls.

For instance, YouTube videos have been a fantastic learning tool on everything from potty training to "Wheels on the Bus" videos for my 2-year-old daughter, Athena. This represents a fairly practical approach: We watch and learn, and our choices tend to cluster in the contemporary. Other parents jump more readily through time, inserting a healthy dose of what they once learned from, or at least laughed at.

Aside from their multilingual wanderings, the children turn to the computer for their musical education.

"We also watch children play different instruments. For instance, we'll be talking or reading about violins, and I will find videos of children playing the violin," said Gallup.

With all this ambitious learning, it's no surprise that even educational shows in traditional forms get downgraded.

"I also had tried to find the lyrics to a few kid songs, and we found the lyrics on a Barney clip. That one clip is pretty much the only commercialized TV they see."

Note to TV execs: If these YouTube users represent a grass-roots insurgency against current formats, revitalize, we say, by following the kids. Take Lisa Portes, Chicago mom of Eva Rose Murillo, 4, and Carlitos Murillo, 2. These children's curiosities drive their watching. "If our daughter is suddenly talking about skiing, we'll YouTube videos of skiing. Or, lately our son has been into astronauts, so we've been YouTubing footage of the first moon landing."

And to finesse the curiosity of her children, Portes also offers some traditional media clips. "We love YouTubing the U.K. episodes of 'Thomas the Train' that Ringo Starr narrates. We love that Sir Topham Hat is called The Fat Controller. It appeals to our lefty 'workers of the world unite!' nature."

In Milwaukee, Elisabeth Witt's sons (2 and 6) also travel across the world.

They love "the Korean egg song, milk song, carrot song and number song."

"Sometimes we just surf. We watch music videos from South America, including Los Mono. It's a guy dancing in the hallway in a bright orange jumpsuit."

The family also watches YouTube videos about Korean and Chinese adoptions because they are adopting a daughter from Korea.

Witt's 6-year-old had a twin brother who died from a tuberous sclerosis complex last year. The family put together a montage of photos set to music on YouTube to spread word about his genetic disorder.

"It's been nice because we can pull it up wherever we are," Witt said.